Pain Is In Our Best Interest

This is the fourth of the sub-heads in my flurry of thoughts post. It has taken me some time to get to it but here are a few of my thoughts on this.

A friend from church just lost his father 3 months ago. He died way too soon. As I spoke with my friend last week he has an incredible hunger for the things of God. He has recently served time in Iraq in the war. Both the loss of his father and being in a war had spurned his desire to know God more.

Having lost loved ones, jobs, and struggled through a failed business and many other hardships in life, I can say that without them I would not have grown closer to God in the way that I have. I did not desire them and have at times not had the best attitude during those times of pain but I have grown through them.

C.S. Lewis, (my favorite author) in his book The Problem of Pain covers this in a much better, eloquent and comprehensive way than I can. He uses analogy of a an older dog who has undergone the pains of training from his master. The dog enjoys shelter, food, water and affection from the master. He knows what the puppy does not know. The pain of being made to conform to something that he is naturally against has it benefits. Left to himself he would be in the rain, the cold and most likely hungry trying to provide for himself.

While Lewis even admits it is not the perfect analogy, it truly is a great example of our life in relation to suffering. God allow and sometimes sends suffering to cause us to run to him. To call out to Him for direction and comfort. He is making us into a usable vessel. No we do not like it and it is sometimes more painful than we think we can handle but it IS in our best interest.

I sure wish there was an easier way. Having experienced and watched friends and family struggle through pain this past year I say as John does in Revelation 22:20, "Come Lord Jesus".